Dark Charybdis: New Concept Album and Aspirations

Australian metal band VOROS recently had their first international tour through Asia in July, and Taiwan was their first stop. After performing at the Wake Up Fest, they had a solo show Wednesday at The Wall, arranged by Metal Sensor. Local Deathcore band Dark Charybdis opened for them, and I was able to chat with them before their set.

Initially formed by guitarist Ah Guang, who also plays in the extremely well received band Emerging From The Cocoon (EFTC), the new band has already released an EP (extended play) and is working on their first album.

Dark Charybdis (by Guang-Hui Chuan of GSquaredTravel)

First question, it’s a little unusual but why “Dark Charybdis”? It seems very difficult to pronounce.

Yeah, it’s actually funny how that happened! Basically Ah Guang our guitarist took out an English dictionary and flipped through it looking for cool words. A Charybdis is a monster from Greek mythology; we all looked at the words he picked out and decided this one was the most badass. And obviously ‘Dark’ is pretty metal too.

Tell us a little about your music.

Our music focuses mostly on human relationships in a straightforward way. For example, things like the ugliness of humans, or being betrayed. We hope to have people reflect and make society better.

The lyrics from our EP were written by our previous drummer, but our new album will be a conceptual one. It will be telling a story, so if we have some ideas or things we want to transmit to the audience, we will do it through these stories. Not only are we writing songs, we are also writing stories; we are writing a novel.

The album will have a complete, structured narrative. We can’t reveal what kind of story yet, but we are hoping that through the album people will be able to reflect upon their lives and the lives of those around them. For example, why do I do something a certain way, and is this really the best way to do it? That’s our goal.

Although the story for the new album won’t be the same as it was for the EP, it will proceed in a similar manner.

We are trying a lot of new things in terms of marketing and giving the audience a different kind of feeling when they come see our shows.

What kind of feeling do you want the audience to have?

Usually when you go to a live house (local slang for a venue where live music is played), it is difficult for the audience to get the message that you’re trying to convey. So this time we want to try to listen to the music and at the same time get the message we are trying get out.

We are hoping for a dialogue. We want a certain degree of audience participation so that there is an interaction between audience and band: on the stage, in the album, and even in how we distribute the material.

What goals do you have as a band?

We want to be a band that other bands aspire to, I mean, otherwise why would you form a band?

We go to a lot of shows, and obviously we have a lot of fun but we are also studying how they are performing. When we practice we do take into account staging, who needs to go where etc.

Where do you usually practice?

There’s a school of music called The Ball, we go to the one on Fuxing South Road by Daan station. That’s basically where we are.

Is it big enough?

It’s alright. Actually it’s not very big but it’s alright.

Zhi Hao – 之昊 – Bass

Zhi Yi – 志佾 – Drums

Ya Zhe 亞哲 – Vocal

Ah-Guang 阿光 – Guitar

Hua Qiang 華強 – Guitar

Dark Charybdis (by Guang-Hui Chuan of GSquaredTravel)

Dark Charybdis (by Guang-Hui Chuan of GSquaredTravel)

Next performance?

Probably October.

We won’t take on as many shows, since we are preparing our next album. Of course we will still perform at festivals, but going forward, we’d like to not do as many performances since we need to focus on our next album. We need to record and really take all the details into consideration.

Anything you’d like to tell your overseas fans?

Please look forward to our new album! We are also working on a music video.

Darice is an artist, writer, model and translator residing in Taipei. She volunteered with a metaller turned legislator and facilitated for stories appearing in the BBC, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, L’Orange, and Metal Hammer. She was previously Community Manager at FutureWard Central, Taipei's largest co-working and makerspace. In her spare time she enjoys amazing vegan food, photoshoots, and music festivals.